How to remove an old version of Office before a new install

If the new Office installer stops and asks you to remove another product first, or Word still shows the old Office or a Microsoft 365 trial, the cause is almost always a previous version left on the computer. This is fixed for free, without a new licence: you remove the old Office completely and install the new one — the steps, and what to save first, are below.

In short

1. Back up your Outlook mail, signatures and Word templates.
2. Uninstall every Office and Microsoft 365 entry from Windows Settings.
3. If anything is left, use Microsoft's tool for complete removal.
4. Restart, check, and install the new Office.

Why the old Office gets in the way of the new one

Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 2021 and Microsoft 365 all use the same internal version number – 16.0. Windows therefore treats them as close relatives that do not live together easily. Microsoft describes a few rules that explain most of the problems:

• Two products of different versions that both use Click-to-Run and contain the same apps (for example Word and Excel) cannot be installed on the computer at the same time.
• Products of the same version but with different installation technologies are not supported together. Older volume editions of Office 2016 use Windows Installer (MSI), while Office 2019 and Office 2021 use Click-to-Run.
• All Office products on one computer must have the same architecture – either all 32-bit or all 64-bit.
• Volume-licensed editions cannot be installed on the same device as non-volume editions.

In practice this means that before installing the new Office, the old one has to be removed completely, not just left unused.

Typical symptoms of a conflict

• The installer stops with a message such as "To install …, first uninstall the following product(s) and try again".
• A warning appears – "Stop, you should wait to install Office…" – with a list of programs that will be removed if you continue.
• The error "Office (64-bit or 32-bit) couldn't be installed" – there is already Office with the other architecture on the computer.
• The installation completes, but in Word, under File → Account, the old product or Microsoft 365 is still shown and the app asks you to sign in or subscribe.
• The key is accepted, but Office still says the product is not activated. If you suspect the key itself is the problem, see what to do when your Office key does not work.

Before you uninstall: what to back up

Uninstalling Office does not delete your documents – files in Documents, on the desktop or in OneDrive stay where they are. There are, however, a few things worth copying to a USB stick or the cloud before you start:

• Outlook mail (.pst). If you use a POP account or archive folders, your data is in a file with the .pst extension, usually in Documents\Outlook Files. You do not need to keep .ost files for IMAP and Exchange accounts – Outlook recreates them when you add the account again.
• Outlook signatures. They are in %appdata%\Microsoft\Signatures – paste this path into the File Explorer address bar.
• Templates. Word's global template (Normal.dotm) and other templates are in %appdata%\Microsoft\Templates. Personal templates are usually in a separate folder under Documents; you can see the exact location in Word under File → Options → Save.
• Old licence details. Note down the product key or the Microsoft account the old Office is linked to – you may need them for reference.

Step 1: Uninstall the old Office from Settings

1. Open Start → Settings → Apps → Installed apps. In Windows 10 the path is Settings → Apps → Apps & features.
2. In the search box type "Office", and then "Microsoft 365".
3. Next to each entry found, click the More button (the three dots) and choose Uninstall.
4. Repeat for every entry. A preinstalled Microsoft 365 often has separate entries for different languages, for example "Microsoft 365 – en-us" and "Microsoft 365 – bg-bg", and sometimes a separate entry for OneNote.

If you prefer the classic interface, you can do the same via Control Panel → Programs → Programs and Features: select the product and click Uninstall.

Step 2: If something is left – Microsoft's tool

Sometimes the uninstall stops with an error, or nothing is left in the list but the new installer still insists Office is present. In that case use Microsoft's official tool for complete removal (the Microsoft 365 uninstall troubleshooter). It used to be part of the Microsoft Support and Recovery Assistant (SaRA); it now runs through the Get Help app built into Windows.

1. On support.microsoft.com open the article "Uninstall Microsoft 365 or Office from a PC" and click the uninstall button in it.
2. Your browser will ask whether to open Get Help – confirm with Open.
3. Follow the steps, choose the version you are removing, and restart the computer when prompted.

The tool works on Windows 10 and later. According to Microsoft it does not remove Office 2024 – for that, use Step 1. If Office was installed from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft also provides a command for Windows PowerShell run as administrator: Get-AppxPackage -name "Microsoft.Office.Desktop" | Remove-AppxPackage.

Step 3: Restart and check

Restart the computer even if nothing asked you to – some Office components are only released after a restart. Then open Installed apps again and check that no Office or Microsoft 365 entry remains. If one does, repeat Step 2.

Step 4: Install the new Office

Only now should you start installing the new Office. If the computer will also have other programs from the family, such as Visio or Project, choose the same architecture for all of them – 64-bit is the standard choice. Detailed instructions for entering the key and linking it to a Microsoft account are in the article how to activate Office 2021.

After activation, check in Word under File → Account that you see the edition you bought. For more advanced users: in a Command Prompt run as administrator, from the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office16 (for 32-bit Office – under Program Files (x86)) run cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus. The command lists the Office licences registered on the computer together with the last five characters of each key. If an old key is still there, it can be removed with cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:XXXXX, where XXXXX are those five characters.

A new laptop with a Microsoft 365 trial

Many new computers come with a preinstalled Microsoft 365 trial. The principle is the same – the trial has to go before the Office you bought goes on. The specifics for new laptops, including what to do with the subscription prompt, are covered separately in the article a new laptop with a trial version of Office.

When you really need a new licence

Removing the old Office is free and in most cases solves the installation problem. You only need a new key if your previous Office was a trial, your Microsoft 365 subscription has expired or you never had a licence of your own. In that case you will need a valid key once the computer is clean, and Office 2021 Pro Plus is paid for once, with no monthly fees.

Choose Office 2021 Pro Plus. The key activates through Microsoft's official servers and arrives by email within 15 minutes during business hours. You receive an invoice and the statutory guarantee of conformity, and if there is an activation problem we replace the key free of charge or refund you. Other editions for Windows and Mac are in our Office licences category. If you get stuck on any of the steps, write to us — we reply every day from 09:00 to 20:00 (Bulgarian time).